So I'm a Spider, So What?, Vol. 12

De: Okina Baba, Jenny McKeon McKeon - translator, Tsukasa Kiryu

Narrado por: Caitlin Kelly

THIS COLD WAR JUST WENT HOT!

This is a special spider field report coming to you straight from the human-demon border where a massive battle has erupted! The Demon Lord is finally launching an all-out assault on the fortresses guarding the human realm’s frontier and has committed hundreds of thousands of soldiers for the attack.

On the other side, the humans are putting up a stiff resistance! All signs point to a bloody day of fighting for both forces-though that’s kinda the point, y’know? Hopefully the hero comes onto the field as planned...

©2023 Okina Baba (P)2024 Yen Audio

Format change

First off, Caitlin Kelly is perfect for this and did a great job, as per usual.

With that out of the way, the story is a bit frustrating in this one. The TL;DR is that we skipped a decade ahead and are not focusing on any character, which makes this feel more like a bonus side story volume instead of a mainline volume.

It's Not because it isn't fun or interesting, but because it seems the author wants to wrap the story up, and had to massively pick up the pace in order to do so. This is true with the previous volume, but because that volume followed one character primarily, it seemed to make sense to skip a bunch of stuff from other characters perspectives. But in this volume, which takes place almost a decade after the events of the last Komoko/White focused volume, it feels like we've lost touch with her. However, with the way this volume ends, it sort of feels like we wasted 1.5 volumes focusing on a character who just unceremoniously dies. I'd honestly have preferred if this volume was White or Ariel focused, catching us up on the last 10 years, with just a coupe chapters summarizing all the battles. Are we supposed to feel a growing distance between ourselves and the main cast so we can sympathize with merosophis or what?

I'll re-listen to all of the volumes again in the future because I love this series so much and the Voice work is so good, but there are only a few chapters in this entire volume that actually feel relevant to the future story. Will probably end up mostly skipping this one, save for the chapters featuring our actual main cast, i.e. merosophis, white, etc

Basically Character Snapshots and Long Soliloquys

This series I has some great things going for it. The characters are well developed and both demon and human sides are relatable and likeable (except for Julius the Stupid and Shun the Boring). The world is also interesting, especially the fight over the system's resources. Where it fails - and fails miserably, is in the actual telling. Honestly, I feel like a better writer should rewrite this whole mess in a better style because it's just a jumbled mess of ideas and not a cohesive story.

With that said, at least this was far, far better than the last release even though this is basically just a collection of chapters with many characters banging on about their life and motivations with a war as a backdrop. This is important information to be sure, but it is related in the most bruteforced, hamfisted way possible.

Oh well, what are you going to do? If you made it this far in the series, you already know what's what, so why are you bothering to listen to me blather on anyway?

love the story as well as the audio production

first off let me say that this is probably over of my favorite books through our the whole story, the narration is GREAT she does such a good job with different voices. my only gripe about this book is that it's too short as well as the length the side characters speak... OMG it is ridiculous!!

Obsessed with this series

I absolutely love the narrator and story. I am looking forward to the next volume.

Edging

It is another filler but really good! Still waiting the the confrontation at the end of the anime. I can’t wait for the next one.

Overly Critical

People who give this a bad review are being critical of the book for being good at making the characters actual people. The whole book series can’t just be about one person.

Story of the hero’s party and their povs

Same voice quality voice acting as all the others, but some may find a story from the past inside story they’re not interested in. Still has important details related to the story

Show, don't tell

The central story and setting of this series is great. However, that can only hold it up so long. The story is written terribly. Everything is told is exposition. Show, don't tell. Also, it's written with endlessly redundant sentences, reappearing itself again and again and again as if trying to hit a word count. This series could be good if it were condenced and edited down a lot. These 12 books so far could have been 4 or 5 of the same length.

Alt pov of demon war/death of Julius

Completely pointless read unless you like to hear about 3rd tier background characters that you already know are dead from the first few books or are irrelevant.

Only think worth knowing is that White has a massive spynetwork.

Disappointing and Unengaging: A Letdown in Spider Vol. 12

I was quite disappointed with Spider Vol. 12. The story felt lacking, as it primarily focused on side characters rather than advancing the main plot. These side stories were not particularly engaging, making the overall experience feel like a waste of time. While the performance was decent, it wasn’t enough to salvage the experience for me. Overall, I can’t recommend this book.